Japanese prime minister angers neighbours with offering to WW2 shrine

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, has risked angering his neighbours by
sending a ritual offering to a shrine featuring World War Two war criminals
on the anniversary of Japan's surrender.

A ceremony in front of the gate of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Photo: REUTERS/Yuya Shino

By Mike Firn, Tokyo

9:26AM BST 15 Aug 2013

Mr Abe did not visit the controversial shrine – in an apparent attempt to avoid worsening relations with China and South Korea – but his offering was still seen as provocative. Previous prime ministers have often avoided anything to do with the shrine.

Two cabinet ministers did visit Yasukuni to pay their respects, however – prompting China to summon the Japanese Ambassador to lodge a formal protest.

Their visit "seriously harms the feelings of the people in China and other Asian victim countries", the China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Yasukuni is a Shinto shrine dedicated to 2.5 million Japanese, most of whom died in World War II. Visits by previous prime ministers have angeredJapan's wartime adversaries because the shrine includes the remains of convicted Class-A War Criminals.

Mr Abe has said he regretted not visiting Yasukuni during his previous term as prime minister from 2006 to 2007.

Instead of visiting, however, he sent an offering and then laid a wreath for the war dead at Tokyo's Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.

"Mr Abe said that circumstances prevented his visit, and he would make a contribution in his personal capacity out of his own funds," said Stephen Church, Managing Partner at Ji Asia in Tokyo.

"In other words he cannot go, but said he would like to and has settled for making a donation to the Shrine in his personal capacity – for him, that is the next best thing."

Robert Dujarric, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, said: “Abe understands that going to Yasukuni would further enflame the situation with Korea and Japan. He might also have been advised by the US not to visit the shrine.

“But since his heart is in Yasukuni he felt he had to do something and thus sent an offering.”

At a second memorial ceremony, held at the Nippon Budokan and attended by the Emperor and Empress, Mr Abe renewed a promise to help bring world peace.

"We will make contributions to lasting world peace and spare no effort in working to bring about a world in which all people are able to live enriched lives," he told the audience of more than 4,000 relatives of the war dead.

The prime minister made no mention of Japan's wartime aggression.

While events in Japan were unfolding, Park Geun Hye, the South Korean president, called on Japan take responsibility for its wartime acts in a speech to mark Liberation Day – their name for August 15.

In a reference to Japan's use of wartime sex slaves she said the government should take "responsible and sincere measures for those who are living with suffering and wounds arising from past history."

Japan's relations with China and South Korea have worsened over the past year as a result of territorial disputes. Mr Abe's comments that he wants to revise Japan's pacifist post-war constitution have also drawn criticism from Japan's neighbours.